


The Jump Diaries

by LastCorsair



Category: RWBY
Genre: Space Opera
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:27:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26298655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LastCorsair/pseuds/LastCorsair
Summary: Eight graduates of the Remnant Fleet Academy are assigned to their own scout vessel. But who arranged it, and why?
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Weiss was meeting her father for breakfast when her orders came. Like every meal with her father since she'd decided to join the Fleet instead of Administration, things were likely to be... tense.

The restaurant she'd chosen was literally over the main docking bay of Mothership 3, with a transparent crystal floor through which you diners could view the various ships in dock. Weiss stopped and took in all the ships for a moment, wondering which of them she'd be on tonight. She lifted her gaze and looked around for her father. Other than the rather ostentatious floor the restaurant's decor was rather spartan, resembling the mess hall on a Fleet vessel, but she liked eating here. This was one of the few restaurants that catered to Fleet personnel that welcomed trainees as well; she'd dined here often with various classmates while she was in training.

Ah, there her father was. He'd chosen a table in a nook to one side, as close to being somewhere else as he could get while still keeping to their arrangement. "Father," she said as she sat down opposite him, her rolling locker coming to a rest next to the table.

"Weiss." His tone was clipped and firm. "I see you're all ready to go. Is there any point in one last attempt to convince you to reconsider this foolishness?"

"I'm already committed, Father. They make you sign before graduation, you know that." That was one vast difference between her and her father. He'd gone through Fleet training like she had, but had opted for Reservist status instead of active Fleet duty. Weiss had no doubt that he'd done his best to make sure he never got called up for active duty. Many Reservists did. If they'd wanted active service, they'd have accepted enlistment, wouldn't they? "I'm just awaiting my first orders now."

"I would have thought they'd give them to you in advance."

Weiss shook her head, scanning the menu to decide what she wanted today. "No. A graduate's first assignment comes without warning. We're told that's to prevent people for angling for choice assignments or trading." Again, something her father should have remembered from his own training. If he wasn't outright ignoring it.

"Well, hopefully, they find you an assignment worthy of your talents. Third in your class, that's nothing to be ashamed of."

She made a small moue of annoyance of the reminder. Third in a class of hundreds was a notable achievement, but it was the girl that had come in second that annoyed Weiss. Apparently, the girl had gotten into the Academy on some sort of accelerated placement program, then blown through the command course like it was nothing! Weiss had studiously avoided taking advantage of any of her father's influence during training, but the other girl's time at the Academy positively reeked of it. "I'm not expecting anything wonderful for my first assignment, Father," she replied, thumbing the menu for her selection. "Good assignments have to be earned."

"I could have arranged something for you. Anything you want."

She set down her menu, giving her father her best 'Are you fucking kidding me?' look. "Father, no. I don't want my career tainted by any hint of influence applied on my behalf."

Her father humphed and adjusted his collar. "Come now, Weiss, you can't seriously expect me to believe you are so naive as to think that influence is never applied within the Fleet. It sure as hell is in Administration."

"No, I'm not that stupid, Father. But I do intend to avoid it as much as possible." Weiss's hand terminal chirped, the insistent double-chirp of a priority message. She looked at it with a frown. "Your orders, Weiss? Something wrong?"

"It's my orders, but they're weird. It's just a dock number and a hull number. 'Report to docking bay 813 at 1000 hours for service aboard ship #470060.' No mention of my assignment aboard." Weiss tapped on her wristlink for a moment, then frowned again. "And the hull number isn't on the registry. Well," Weiss put on a smile and looked at her father again. "Shall we enjoy our meal? I have a few hours until I have to report."

* * *

Weiss stepped out of the transit tube at exactly 0955. Perfect. Not late, but not so early as to appear overeager. She strode down the passageway, her rolling locker following behind, eager to make a good first impression.

As she approached dock 813, she made a face of disgust. Standing outside the hatch were two women kissing. Same-sex relationships weren't illegal among the Remnant Fleet, exactly, but they were frowned on socially. The pair pulled apart at her approach, looking embarrassed. "One last kiss before one of you reports aboard?"

"That's the thing, we're both assigned to this ship. But the hatch is locked. Says it needs command authorization to open. I'm Yang, Yang Xiao Long." The blonde woman extended a hand in greeting."

Weiss shook Yang's hand, and then took the black-haired woman's hand. "I'm Weiss Schnee. And you?"

"Blake, Blake Belladonna."

"You're an esper, aren't you?"

Blake took a step back. "How did you know? Is it a problem?"

"I just... always know, when I get close enough to one. I test above average, but I'm not at esper level. And no, I don't have a problem with espers."

Blake nodded, relieved. A lot of people hated espers, those with psionic abilities. There were even periodic calls to sterilize or even euthanize known espers. "Good, that's good. I just graduated, and I want my first assignment to go okay."

"You're both on your first assignment too?" The pair nodded, and Weiss turned toward the locked hatch that stood between them and their assignment. She pressed her hand to the open panel, and it flashed red, showing the words 'Command authorization required.' "This is ridiculous. This is where we're supposed to be, why can't we go aboard?"

"You're assigned here too? That's awesome!" The three of them turned around, and Weiss's face fell. Standing behind them were Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos, Pyrrha dragging Jaune by the arm. Jaune had pursued Weiss during training, refusing to Take A Hint that she was not interested in him. Maybe Pyrrha had finally gotten through to him.

And Pyrrha... Weiss and Pyrrha had been rivals during training, with Pyrrha graduating first in their class. Weiss could feel her anger rising, then sighed. In the end, it didn't really matter now. Training was over, this was the real world.

Yang was peering through the wall-length window into the darkened docking bay that presumably held the ship they were assigned to. "Anybody else notice the lights are off in there? Can't make out much, but it doesn't look like a really big ship. Scout class, maybe?"

"Maybe, but there are five of us. That's most of the crew complement of most scout class vessels, isn't it? Wouldn't it be strange for this many new recruits to be assigned to a vessel that small?"

"Seven, actually." They were joined by a man with black hair with a pink streak and a woman with orange hair. "Lie Ren, and this is-"

"I'm Nora Valkyrie!" the woman announced, raising a fist in the air as if in victory. "I'm so glad to meet you all! Are we all assigned to the same ship? That doesn't look very big, I wonder what the deal is, all of us going aboard a ship for the first time like this, why isn't the bay lit up? And why's the hatch locked?"

"That's what we're all wondering." Blake's voice took on a wavering tone, and she looked toward the transit tube. "Our answers are coming." She shook her head and looked at everyone, her voice back to normal. "Sorry. Happens sometimes."

"It's okay, babe." Yang reached out and intertwined her hand with Blake's, giving it a squeeze."

"Precognition?" Weiss asked softly. Blake nodded, adding "A little bit. Not enough to rely on. My gift is mostly extra-sensory perception, with a bit of precog and just enough telekinesis to lift a stylus, slowly. That was the strongest precog flash I've had in a long time."

The hatch to the transit tube opened and out ran a face they all recognized. Ruby Rose, _second_ in their training class was running down the passageway toward them. "Sorry I'm late, I got caught up in a disciplinary hearing this morning." At Weiss's frown, Ruby added, "As a _witness_ , not the accused."

"Anybody we know, sis?" Yang asked

"Cardin Winchester," Ruby replied, and everyone groaned. Cardin Winchester had been a persistent problem for most of their graduating class, hitting on just about every female trainee and making his views against espers well known.

"Don't tell me he finally got arrested for his crap?"

"By Fleet Security no less. I'll give you the details later. So, what's everyone standing around for? Let's report in."

"We can't; the hatch is locked," Jaune replied. "We've all tried."

"Oh, that is ridiculous!" Ruby snapped, slapping her hand down on the control panel. "There is no way-"

'Command authorization accepted,' flashed on the panel, and the hatch slid open as the lights in the docking bay came up, revealing the ship they had been assigned to. It was indeed a scout-class vessel. " _Farwander_ -class scout vessel, looks like the 'G' modification," Pyrrha remarked, stepping up to the window.

"'H' modification, I think. The probe launch assembly looks different. And a crew complement of eight, if I remember right," Ruby corrected, mentally going over the vessel's specs. "Which makes us the entire crew."

"And you presumably our captain, if you had the command authorization to open the hatch," Ren added.

"Something's not right. Why would they give command of a ship to a new graduate like you? Even a scout?" Weiss was struggling to maintain her calm, but inside, she was seething. Accelerated acceptance into Fleet training, and the command course, the top three in their graduating class all assigned to the same ship, and command of a scout as her first assignment? Someone was stacking the deck heavily in Ruby Rose's favor and it was pissing Weiss off. Plus... Weiss took a step closer to Ruby, and her suspicion was confirmed. Ruby was an esper of some sort. Was that the reason for the special favors being shown her? She decided to keep that bit of information to herself, for now at least. "So what now, oh, fearless leader?"

"We aren't getting any answers here. Let's find the command deck." The group stepped aboard, Ruby leading the way.

Inside the ship was deserted. Everything was new and unused, making Yang whistle. "Okay, now _I'm_ creeped out. No offense, Rubes, but there's no way you should be getting command of a brand new ship like this."

"No kidding." Ruby was struggling to maintain her composure, but things were starting to creep her out too. "I could understand command of a small craft, under supervision, but scouts operate independently. And this one's brand new. I think they just started production of the H series two weeks ago. So this has to be one of the first ones finished."

On the command deck, Ruby sat down in the command couch, tapping keys and bringing the ship to life. She frowned. "According to the computer, we're the entire crew. And I am the captain."

That was it. "How in the hell did you get assigned command of a ship like this? Who did you sleep with, or bribe, or whatever? This is _insane_."

"Weiss-" Yang started, only to be interrupted by Ruby's raised hand. "It's okay, Yang. Weiss, everybody, _I didn't ask for this._ I'm as confused by what's going on as you are. What I can do, what I will do, is contact Admiral Ironwood's office for clarification and orders." Ruby looked around the group, taking a read on everyone. "In fact, Weiss, I'm leaving you in charge while I try to find out what's going on. Get everyone doing system checks and inventory. If this _is_ my-our ship, I want to make sure it's in good working order."

"Why me?"

"Because you're questioning what's going on more than anyone besides me. And I want answers."

* * *

Admiral Ironwood had a concerned look on his face as he answered Ruby's comm call. "Miss Rose, I didn't expect to hear from you again. Shouldn't you be reporting for your first assignment?"

"Well, there's a problem with that, sir." Ruby laid out the oddities of her new 'command,' finishing up with "... and that's everything. So according to the ship's computer, I'm in command, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I mean, I know how to command, but I don't know where my ship should go, or even if I'm really in command or not."

"So you're telling me the top three of our latest graduating class all got assigned to the same ship? Under your command?"

"And my _sister,_ and my sister's esper girlfriend. It defies belief, sir."

Ironwood nodded. "I share your concerns. No offense to you, Miss Rose, or any of your 'crew,' but to be given an independent command like this as a first assignment is unusual, to say the least. Send me copies of your orders, including those of your crew. I'll have someone look into this, including sending technicians over to check your vessel for tampering. We'll decide what happens to your ship and crew once that's complete."

"Thank you, sir."

After breaking the connection, Ironwood sat thinking for a while. This was damn odd. Finally, he reached for the comm on his desk. "Ozpin, something strange has happened. I think the Oracle is meddling again. This time I think we've got a chance to get ahead of things."


	2. Chapter 2

Ruby yawned and stretched as her ship dropped out of jump near the Fleet rendezvous point. For the last two months, they had been sent scurrying hither and yon, running errands and carrying mail for Fleet Command, but now their little crew was definitely due for some downtime.

"Hey everyone, the mail's here, don't get too excited," Yang muttered from her corner of the command deck.

"Carrying messages from one part of the Fleet to another is a vital task, and one scout-class vessels are often assigned," Weiss replied in a harsh tone from her own station. "And all things considered, we are hardly in a position to argue."

Yang glanced at Ruby. "Sis-" she began, only to have Ruby glare at her. "Weiss is correct, Yang. And she is the acting XO, remember."

"Yeah, but-"

"You're just still mad Ruby caught the two of you." This time the interruption came from Jaune as he put their ship on course to dock with the titanic Mothership. "And it was kind of funny you know."

Yang scowled, but before she could lay into Jaune, Ruby's console chimed, signaling the arrival of a priority message. Ruby's face fell as she read it. "We're ordered to report for a disciplinary hearing."

"Who's the hearing for, Rubes?" Yang asked, trying to read over her sister's shoulder even as Ruby swatted her away.

"Me. Well, it's been nice being your captain, everyone."

* * *

"Ensign Rose, would you say you have discharged the responsibilities of a ship's commander correctly?"

Ruby bristled but held herself firmly in check. Admiral Ironwood had given her a provisional rank of Lieutenant, and since she was still in command of their scout, she was entitled to be referred to as 'Captain,' but the asshole one-star admiral was determined to belittle her at every opportunity. He'd even had her disciplinary record from the Academy read into evidence, for crying out loud! Ruby could think of three, _maybe_ four people in her graduating class that didn't have at least half a dozen demerits or reprimands. Even goody-two-shoes Weiss Schnee had seven! "Sir, I have attempted to do so to the best of my ability."

"And you have, at all times, conducted yourself with the demeanor expected of a ship's commander?"

"I will admit that I feel I still have room for improvement there, sir."

"On that, we stand in agreement." The admiral tapped a datapad, scrolling through its contents. "I asked Ensign Schnee to keep an eye on your little band of misfits, with a special eye towards any behavior she considered… questionable. Anything you'd like to confess to us now, Crewman Rose?"

"I'm not sure what you're referring to, sir."

"Let me refresh your memory. Ah, here we are. Three weeks ago, you caught your sister and her girlfriend, Ensign Belladonna, 'getting affectionate' to use Ensign Schnee's words, on the command deck, while they were on watch. Does this jog your memory, Ensign Rose?"

Ruby took a deep breath to steady herself. So that was the rock this asshole was going to turn into a moon to deep-fry her crew's careers with. "Yes, sir."

"What did you do when you discovered their inappropriate behavior, Ensign Rose?"

She opened her mouth to answer him, but before she could speak, the hatch to the courtroom hissed open and shut. "According to her own logs, she tripped the hazard alarm, sending her crew scrambling to the command deck. Where she proceeded to discipline both Ensign Xiao Long, her own half-sister I might add, and Ensign Belladonna. Without letting them finish getting dressed first." Admiral Ironwood stood just inside the hatch, his hands behind his back. "Which, while perhaps slightly immature, might be forgiven considering her inexperience. Overall, this concerns me less than a flag officer violating a direct order, Admiral Maglen."

Ruby scowled. Now she remembered where she knew this asshole from. A month ago, Admiral Maglen had met her ship in the docking bay, cornering Ruby and questioning her for almost half an hour. Afterward, she'd reported it to Ironwood, who had simply said, "I'll take care of it."

"Admiral Ironwood, I was only-" Maglen sputtered, only to have Ironwood cut him off.

"-interfering in an official investigation that you were given a direct order to steer clear of. _Captain_ Rose," Ironwood continued, stressing the courtesy rank Ruby was entitled to, "there is a hearing today at 1400 Fleet Standard time; there should have been a message in your mail. Did you get it?"

"Yes, sir, but-" Ruby's eyes flickered toward Admiral Maglen, and Ironwood grimaced. "Let me guess, the order to report for this hearing also put your ship and crew on communications lockdown. And I note that your defense counsel looks relatively young and inexperienced, Captain Rose. That's no slight to you, Lieutenant, it's just another irregularity in these proceedings. On my authority, this hearing is hereby suspended until such time as I can consult with the Fleet JAG office. Admiral Maglen, you and I will proceed to the Fleet JAG office immediately."

Ruby couldn't help but notice Weiss hanging back as they wandered down the corridor in search of lunch while they waited for that afternoon's hearing. "Something wrong, Weiss?"

"Ruby, I-I'm sorry, I didn't think-"

"Stop." Ruby held up a hand to forestall any more apologies. "You were following what you thought were perfectly legitimate orders, and in the end, no harm was done. You don't have anything to apologize for. Now let's get lunch. You're buying."

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be getting a Lieutenant's pay?"

"From your mouth to payroll's ears..."

* * *

"Well, isn't this a fine mess."

Ruby gulped. This was a lot more terrifying than her 'disciplinary hearing' that morning. Instead of being led by a one-star admiral with the balance of the board being made up by a pair each of captains and commanders, the board sitting across from her crew was led by a _three-star_ admiral, with two-star and one-star admirals making up the remainder.

"First things first. Captain Rose, you are not on trial here. Part of the purpose of this hearing is to deliver unto you and the official record the results of the investigation into how you ended up with your current command. We'll come to that in due time." Admiral Tolwyn folded her hands and frowned. "First, however, we have to deal with a matter of insubordination.

"Admiral Maglen, by your own admission, you have disobeyed a direct order not to involve yourself in an investigation being undertaken by Fleet Command. Do you hold yourself above Fleet Command, Admiral?"

Maglen gulped. "No, ma'am, I merely thought-"

"Somehow, I doubt there was very much 'thought' involved in your actions. You flat-out tried to bully a junior officer into confessing to a crime, and when she refused and reported it, which she was correct to do, you resorted to questionable means to find something, anything, to hang her on.

"Moving on to Captain Rose, and the laughable 'charge' you attempted to bring her to trial on. Since you managed to convince someone to convene a court, and who and how is going to be investigated, we do have to resolve that issue. Captain Rose, did the events happen as reported in your official logs, and in the report Admiral Maglen received from Ensign Schnee?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Does anyone wish to dispute either of these versions of events? No? Very well. Captain Rose, that could and should have been handled better. But poor judgment like this is something that can be corrected, and I think you'll find Admiral Ironwood and Commander Goodwitch will both be willing and able to provide you guidance on better ways to handle similar situations in the future. Now, one thing missing from your official logs is the punishment you leveled on your sister and Ensign Belladonna. Pray tell, exactly how did you punish them?"

"I, uh, I had Ensign Schnee adjust the watch schedules so they wouldn't be standing watch together for a while. Or have much time off-watch to be together."

Laughter rolled across the courtroom, and even Admiral Tolwyn smiled a little. Just a little. "A punishment befitting the crime, then. Very well, then. That matter is settled.

"Now to the final matter before us. The original reason you were to be called before a board today was to deliver to you and your crew the results of the investigation into how you came by your current command. Admiral Ironwood, do you have the report?"

"I do, ma'am."

"Can you summarize the investigation's findings for us?"

Ironwood stood in front of the board. "The investigation found that neither Captain Rose nor any member of her crew took any actions to place her in command of the scout-class vessel, or to cause any member of her crew to be assigned to that vessel, with the exception of Ensign Xiao Long and Ensign Belladonna filing a standard request to be assigned together due to their personal relationship. Unfortunately, they were unable to determine who was responsible or what their motivations were. No action against Captain Rose or any member of her crew is recommended at this time."

"I see. So what do you intend to do our wet-behind-the-ears captain and her merry little band?"

"I plan to give them low-level scout missions, for the time being, to give Captain Ruby and her crew a chance to grow into themselves. I've already selected their first mission. It's a simple little preliminary survey. Just jump in, do a standard survey sweep, and come home. Do you think you can handle that, Captain Rose?"

" _Ruby's_ _Freakshow_ reports ready in all respects, sir," Ruby answered with a grin, and her crew laughed. As the story about how an ensign just out of the Academy had ended up in command of scout had spread across the fleet, more than a few rumors had spread with it. _'Ruby's Freakshow'_ was probably one of the _kinder_ things they'd been called over the past two months.

* * *

Ruby's palms were slick with nervous sweat as the _Freakshow_ dropped out of jump. This was the first time she or any member of her crew had been in uncharted territory. And it literally was uncharted, since they were the first people ever to visit this star system. "Welcome to beautiful downtown LV-426, everyone. Be sure to visit our gift shop before you leave," Yang quipped.

"Yang, enough. Blake, anything?" Ruby asked, glancing over at Blake.

"No artificial emissions detected, and no energy emissions other than the star," Blake answered as she worked the sensor array.

"Okay, good. Standard survey protocol, then. If we don't see anything in four hours, go active and deploy the probe array."

Three days later, Blake called Ruby to the command deck. "I found something, Captain. Last night's sensor take found a moon around the larger of the two gas giants."

"Gas giants have moons, Blake, just like Yang has horrible, horrible puns," Ruby yawned. It hadn't quite been time for her to get up when Blake had called.

Blake grimaced at the comment about Yang but carried on. "This one has free oxygen in its atmosphere."

Now Ruby froze mid-yawn. Generally speaking, you didn't find free oxygen in atmospheres; it tended to react and combine with other gasses or rocks. Free oxygen usually meant one thing. "Life," she whispered.

" _Possible_ life, Ruby," Blake corrected. "I've already re-oriented the probes to focus on the moon. But to get a really good look, we'd have to get closer."

"Good call. Okay, keep scanning the rest of the system, but focus on that moon. And have Jaune prep for a micro-jump to give the moon a closer look when he gets up. Imma go find coffee."

For all his flaws, Jaune Arc was a wizard at the helm. Their micro-jump dropped them right behind the moon in its orbit, just far enough away so their sensors could get a nice, wide look. "Nice job, Jaune," Ruby said, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Th-thanks," he said, tilting his head just enough to grin at Pyrrha.

"Now, drop us in orbit and redeploy the probes for a standard orbital survey. It's not part of our original orders, but I think Fleet will forgive us for checking out signs of life, right, everyone?" The moon was breathtaking, wreathed in the mottled colors of a life-bearing world.

"Captain, I'm reading something on sensors," Blake called out. "A large metallic object in high orbit of the moon, almost to the point where it's orbiting the planet instead."

"Everyone, to your positions. Get me a visual," Ruby ordered, following her own orders by dropping down in her command chair. Artificial objects generally meant bad news.

"Holy cow," Jaune whispered as the object came up on the main screen. "Is that-?"

"-a Reaper orbital platform," Blake whispered as she worked the sensors furiously. "But if I didn't know better, I think this one is, well, heavily damaged. Its energy signature is very low; that's why we didn't spot it earlier."

Ruby frowned. 'Reapers' was the nickname given to one of the non-human civilizations the Remnant Fleet had encountered as they searched for a new homeworld, and their only response to communication attempts was weapons fire. And nobody had ever seen one of their ships or platforms that was badly damaged. Not even the mightiest ships of the fleet had managed that.

"Somebody kicked the shit out of it? Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys," Yang growled.

"Blake, drop our Omega beacon, but set it to echo ping only, with constant tight-beam updating. Sensors, bridge logs, everything; if someone's in the head when the beacon loses contact with us, I want Fleet to know it. Also, set it to slow-crawl to the edge of the system if it loses contact," Ruby said softly, making Yang glance over from her own console. "Sis, you're not thinking something crazy, are you?"

"I'm thinking we have an intelligence opportunity that's worth the lives of everyone on this ship, Ensign Xiao Long," Ruby answered, putting a hair of Command Tone in her voice. "Nobody's ever been as close as we are now to a Reaper platform without it opening fire, and if we can get closer -"

"It's suicide!"

"No, she's right." Everyone turned to look at Jaune in surprise. "I'm setting up an approach course now, minimal engine power. And I'm setting up a micro-jump that will get us well out of even a Reaper platform's weapons range, assuming we don't get blown out of space with the first shot," he finished with a weak laugh. "That's what you were thinking, right, Captain?"

Ruby blinked. "Yep, that's pretty much what I had in mind. I didn't think of the micro-jump though; nice thinking, Jaune. Note that in the log, Blake. In fact-" she hit the intercom. "Ren, warm up the jump drive and keep it on standby. We're about to do something _really_ stupid and may need to make a quick exit. Pyrrha, Yang, you're on guns, just in case."

"Will do, Captain, but keeping the jump drive on standby for extended periods is not recommended. It will seriously reduce the lifespan of critical components."

"Oh trust me, there's a really good reason." Captain Ruby Rose settled back in her command chair, a grin spreading across her face. "In fact, after you get the drive set up, head up to the command deck. You don't want to miss this."

The tension on the command deck was thick enough, you couldn't have cut it with a chainsaw. Slowly but surely, their fragile little scout crept closer and closer towards their wounded enemy. "So, should we be glad that someone kicked the crap out of some Reapers, or scared that someone kicked the crap out some Reapers? I'm confused," asked Yang.

"I think 'both' adequately describes the situation," Weiss answered absentmindedly from where she stood just behind Jaune's station at the helm.

"Yeah," Nora agreed. Even the normally irrepressible orange-haired girl was speechless as she clung to Ren.

They all stared in shock and horror at the damage that had been done to Reaper platform. Whole sections had been blasted away, gaping rents blasted in its armor. Yang put a closeup of one of the rents on the main viewer, and she whistled. "Look at this, guys. There's no corridors or living quarters or anything like that visible through any of the openings. Maybe—" Yang hesitated before continuing—"maybe the whole thing's automated?"

"It is theoretically possible," Ren said. "And it would be consistent with their reflexively hostile behavior."

"No," Blake said, holding a hand to her head as she shook it. "I'm, I'm feeling _something_ from it. Pain, and, and rage, and hate, absolute hatred of anything _other."_ She shuddered, and Yang unbuckled herself from her seat and rose to wrap an arm around Blake.

"I'm feeling it too," Ruby muttered. "Whatever's aboard that thing, it hates us, and anything else not like it, maybe the whole damn universe. The only reason it hasn't attacked us yet is because it doesn't know we're here. It's too blind and in pain to pay us much attention right now."

Blake turned her head from where Yang was comforting her to look at Ruby. "I… didn't know you were an esper, Ruby."

"Kinda," Ruby blushed as she realized she'd just admitted one of her biggest secrets. "They ran me through the whole standard battery and couldn't figure me out. They just labeled me 'unclassified,' so I asked for my test results to be sealed and mostly forgot about it."

They started coming across clusters of debris, and Ruby sent Yang and Pyrrha out on EVA to pull some of the smaller chunks aboard. "Keep the storage bay depressurized, and nobody goes in there without my authorization," Ruby ordered, paging through the images of the debris.

"Might I suggest sealing the bay under your authority as Captain?" Weiss suggested with a slight cough. Even she could feel her normally iron-clad self-control itching to go down and look through the debris, not that she'd be able to figure out much outside of a lab. Ruby nodded and punched the commands into her console, grateful for the suggestion.

"Look at this, guys." This time it was Nora putting something up on the big screen. What looked to be small craft of some sort were hovering around some of the damage, and they could see warped metal getting cut away and new components being put into place. "It's fixing itself. But don't those things look all weird? Kind of like, um, what's that sea creature from Old Earth? Arms in all directions?"

"I think she's talking about a starfish," Ren said, nodding. "And these do bear something of a resemblance, although there isn't any symmetry here. The arms seem jammed on haphazardly, and no two of them are quite the same. It's very optimized for zero-gravity, without any sense of top or bottom like we'd build one."

Even as they stared at the spectacle of their wounded enemy, a prickle was tickling at the back of her mind. Ruby had been honest with everyone when she said her esper talents were undetermined, but she hadn't told them everything. Sometimes she'd get little impulses in the back of her mind, telling her to do this, or not do that. Mostly it turned out to be something minor, but once at the academy, it'd told her to double-check that a hatch was sealed. It hadn't been, and she'd gotten commended for noticing. She'd learned that the impulses weren't always reliable, but usually, they were at least worth considering.

One of those impulses had made her send them closer to the wounded Reaper platform, and now another was busily telling her that the time to make their exit was rapidly approaching. "Okay, I think we've seen as much as I'm comfortable with. Jaune, start easing us out of here. Nice and slow, just like we came in. In and out like a cat."

Too late. As one, the workpods they were watching spun and started swarming. "Jaune, get us out of here!" Weiss shouted, her fingers digging into Jaune's shoulder hard enough that he would have yelped if he hadn't been too busy furiously working the helm to notice.

All pretense of stealth was cast aside as their scout surged away its maximum acceleration. Scattered weapons fire began to come from the wounded platform, and Ruby couldn't help but notice how random and light it seemed compared to what she would have expected from a Reaper platform. "Jump in five, four, three, two, _now!"_ Jaune counted down, and they held their breath.

Nothing happened for a moment, then alarms began to sound from the scout's engineering compartment. "Ren, get back there!" Ruby ordered, but he was already gone, Nora fast behind him. "Jaune, maximum evasion. Buy us time." Ruby was fingering the pendant she wore around her neck now, wondering if this where her journey ended.

Suddenly the scout's nose swung around, aiming them back toward the moon and the platform orbiting it. "What the hell are you doing, Jaune?" Yang yelled as she worked the scout's dorsal laser cannon, trying to at least cut down on the numbers chasing them, Pyrrha matching her efforts with the ventral cannon.

"I got myself a plan!" Jaune called back as he took the ship even _closer_ to the platform.

Ren's voice came over the intercom. "We have a hardware failure in the drive. I can't fix this fast. We need somewhere to hide."

"On it." Jaune brought them around toward the moon, the weapons fire from the platform dwindling as their course took them between the platform and the moon.

"That's right," Blake said in surprise. "Reaper platforms don't fire on things between them and whatever they're orbiting. But what now?"

"Well, we do have wings and landing gear. Setting down is an option. Or I can try to swing around the moon, putting us in an orbit to keep the moon between us and the platform. Your call, Captain," Jaune finished, glancing at Ruby out of the corner of his eye.

"What the hell. Depending on what's wrong with the drive, we could be here a while. Find us a beach, Blake. Maybe on an island."

Their scout swooped over the surging ocean, and Ruby couldn't help but feel a mixed shiver of fright and delight at the sight of it. Like everyone else aboard the Remnant fleet, she'd lived her whole life on ships, never breathed the air of a living world, never seen a body of water that wasn't bounded by the artifice of man. She and her crew would be the first to land on a living world in hundreds of years.

Finally, they found the island Blake had chosen for their resting place. With a touch of nervousness, Jaune extended the landing gear and set them down. Ruby glanced out the porthole at the setting sun. "Okay, I am going to officially call today done for all of us. Sleep yourselves out everyone, and we'll get to work in the 'morning,' whenever that is. First priority is the jump drive. Ren, use whatever you need to get that working again, draft whoever you need, me included. Second is damage assessment and remaining repairs from playing chicken with a Reaper platform. The bar is officially open, folks."

Ruby found herself one of the last ones of the command compartment, right behind Pyrrha. As the hatch slid shut behind her, she swore softly. She'd forgotten to upload her log to the Omega drone still dutifully recording everything. Ruby hit the hatch control, only to stop dead in her tracks at what she saw.

Weiss had Jaune shoved up against the helm and was making her intentions _quite_ clear. _Well, there goes that idea,_ Ruby thought, only to be interrupted by a soft "Go, go, go," from behind her.

She spun around to find Pyrrha standing behind her, a bashful grin on her face. Ruby slapped the hatch control, matching Pyrrha's grin with an embarrassed one of her own. "Uh, I'm guessing you two have an open relationship?"

Pyrrha frowned, a puzzled look on her face. "I'm sorry?"

"Well, isn't he your boyfriend?"

"Eww, no."

"Then-"

"He's my half-brother."

Ruby blinked. "What?" she said flatly.

Pyrrha sighed. "Let's take this to the galley."

Ruby got two cups of coffee from the dispenser, handing one to Pyrrha, who sipped it carefully. She settled against one of the counters and waited for Pyrrha to speak. "Jaune didn't know his dad wasn't his biological father until one of his sisters needed a tissue donation. Since siblings and parents are the best candidates, the whole family got tested.

"Someone did something they shouldn't have and decided to contact the unknowing biological parent. Unfortunately, the contact code they used was one that's shared between my mother and father, and my mother picked up. She was furious and filed for divorce as soon as the results were double-checked. The divorce was all over the newsfeeds." Ruby nodded, mostly to encourage Pyrrha to go on. Even she remembered the Nikos divorce, and high-society stuff bored her to death.

"I am, or was until that point, an only child, and the idea of having a brother, even a half-brother was exciting. I reached out to him, and we bonded. That's why it's my fault that Jaune doesn't go home anymore.

"You see, Juane's family is die-hard Colonists, and Jaune wanted to join the Fleet, but his family refused to help him. So I tutored him so he'd pass the entrance exam, helped him with his coursework, that sort of thing. His parents hate me for it, and my own mother barely talks to me anymore." The redhead looked up at Ruby. "So I guess I spent a bit too much time around him at the academy. Did everyone really think he was my _boyfriend_?"

"Let's say I know more than a few people who made a pass at you and bounced, or didn't even bother trying."

"Oh." Pyrrha's voice was soft and quiet. "Jaune kept complaining about how every girl he asked turned him down flat; I guess I know why, now."

"Well, maybe he and Weiss will hit it off long-term, who knows? Never would have thought Blake and my sister would hit it off like that, and here they are, one step short of being married. But that does leave one question." Ruby set down her coffee cup and stepped over to Pyrrha, setting her hands on Pyrrha's hips and looking her in the eye.

"Do you want company tonight?"


	3. Chapter 3

Ruby dozed lazily, enjoying the warmth of another body pressed against hers. Then the fact that there _was_ another body pressed against hers surged more firmly into her consciousness, coalescing into the thought of _W_ _ho…?_ as she forced her eyes open. Seeing Pyrrha's sleeping face in front of her, framed by her scarlet mane, Ruby's mind went, _Oh, it's Pyrrha_ , before drifting back off to sleep.

Then Ruby's eyes snapped open as what had happened the night before came back to her. _Oh crap, I made a pass at Pyrrha. And she took me up on it._ _I slept with freaking Pyrrha._ _Now what? Do we pretend it never happened, go with it,_ _something else_ _?_ Dammit, this was why Ruby didn't really date that much. Relationships were such a messy, complicated business. But her sister and Blake were happy together, weren't they? Maybe, maybe she and Pyrrha could make it work? They'd been friends since the Academy, after all. She sighed. It wasn't just her decision, it was Pyrrha's too, more so since Ruby was Pyrrhas's commanding officer.

A dim light drew her attention and Ruby lifted her head to see what it was. Through the window of her cabin, she could see a sliver of orange on the, what was the word, horizon, that was it. She supposed it was probably the sunrise. That was something she'd never really experienced before, not from a planet's surface anyway, and Ruby definitely didn't want to miss her first sunrise, especially not when it was also humanity's first sunrise on a new world. Careful not to disturb Pyrrha just yet, Ruby rolled over and started fishing through the discarded clothing by her bunk.

Shrugging on her jacket, a wicked thought brought a hint of a smile to Ruby's lips. She stood a few feet from her bunk, put her hands on her hips, took a deep breath, and in her best Command Tone, barked "Nikos, you're on watch in ten minutes! Get moving!"

Reflex took over, and Pyrrha started to roll out of Ruby's bunk, only to find herself tangled in the bedding, sending her tumbling to the deck in an undignified heap before she was anywhere near awake. "Ow," she muttered, rolling up on an elbow to glare up at Ruby.

Ruby couldn't help it, she started giggling as Pyrrha blew a stray lock of hair out of her face. "Sorry," she said, fighting back the giggles while Pyrrha sat up, clutching the blanket to herself, head hanging down, her gorgeous red hair hiding her face.

Pyrrha took a deep breath. "Ruby, about last night, I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Ruby was puzzled. "What's there to be sorry for? If anybody should be sorry, it's me. I mean, I was kinda, pushy's not the word, but forward, maybe?" She sat down against the bulkhead opposite her bunk, not wanting to loom over Pyrrha.

"Do you know how many dates I got at the academy?" Pyrrha asked, softly.

"Uh, one that I know of." Discounting times she'd seen Pyrrha doing things with Jaune, of course.

"One, and he called it off in the middle, saying he didn't feel right continuing. Before the academy, my mother kept me so focused on making sure I made it _into_ the academy that I barely had a social life. And after I met Jaune, and started helping him get into the academy, even that went away. So I thought, I hoped, that once I got in, I could relax and get out more. But I, I stayed so focused on getting the two of us through our classes that I kept isolating myself, didn't I? So when you told me about everyone thinking Jaune was my boyfriend, and you made your move, I just, I just jumped on you like you were a cheeseburger and I was starving. So I'm sorry."

"Funny thing about that." Ruby looked at the overhead, a touch of pink rising in her cheeks. "Remember when I mentioned the people that tried to get your attention and bounced? I was kinda one of them."

"Oh."

"I mean, I saw Jaune asking out other girls, Weiss in particular, and I thought maybe you two weren't such a lock as everyone thought, so it was worth a try maybe. But you, well, I bounced pretty hard, so that was that."

"I, I don't even remember you asking me out."

Ruby winced; that stung. "But last night, last night wasn't because of some leftover crush from the academy. You are freaking _phenomenal,_ Pyrrha, on so many levels, and I'm not just saying that because you were top of our class. I'm saying that because you're smart, funny when you let yourself be, you're a great friend and a good person."

"Funny when I let myself be?"

"You do tend to be really disciplined and focused, sometimes. Might not hurt you to relax more. So," Ruby took a deep breath, "so last night means what we want it to mean. Maybe it was just a one-time thing, maybe it's the prospect of us being trapped on this moon pushing us together, maybe we can make it work as a long-term thing, I don't know. I've got a pretty good idea what Ruby Rose wants, what does Pyrrha Nikos want?"

"I want…" Pyrrha took another deep breath, "I think I want to get to know Ruby a bit better before I make up my mind."

"I think that sounds like a good idea. Last night, last night was adrenaline and pent-up feelings and, and other stuff I can't put names on. So we spend some time together and see what happens, does that sound okay?" Inwardly, Ruby sighed with relief. She hadn't really been expecting an anguished confession of love or anything like that, but she'd been really afraid that Pyrrha would be hurt and angry. Uncertain, uncertain she could deal with, she was more than a little uncertain herself. "Speaking of which what do you say we go watch the sunrise? wardroom window faces the same way as my cabin, and the sun's starting to come up."

"That sounds like a great idea." Pyrrha started to reach for her clothes, only to stop, looking at Ruby out of the corner of her eye. "Uh..."

She couldn't help herself; Ruby giggled a little as she reached for the door control. "I'll wait for you outside."

The two of them sat, watching brightening horizon in a companionable silence. Pyrrha had just decided she wanted to try leaning up against Ruby when Blake and Yang wandered in, Yang dropping into a seat as Blake hit the beverage dispenser, getting coffee for Yang and tea for herself. "Officially, what powers our ships is fusion reactors, but at this point, I'm pretty sure it's actually coffee," Yang murmured as she sipped the bitter black brew.

"Speak for yourself," Blake said, sipping her own beverage.

"Uh, caffeine then?" Ruby said, trying to forestall an argument that would ruin the quiet morning.

Jaune and Weiss were the last to show, with enough of a gap between them to make it look like they weren't arriving together. Pyrrha winked at Ruby before she cleared her throat. "I saw the two of you, you know."

"Excuse me?" Weiss answered, tilting her head, her face the perfect mask of innocence. Jaune just looked confused.

Pyrrha stood, stalking toward the white-haired girl. "I saw you and Jaune on the command deck last night, after we landed. Didn't give him much of a choice about it, did you? Did the two of you even make it to one of your cabins before the main event?"

"Pyrrha," Jaune moaned even as Weiss stammered, "I didn't, I'm sorry-"

"I only have one thing to say to you, Weiss Schnee." Pyrrha had Weiss backed up against the window now, framed by the steadily brightening horizon. She leaned forward, her finger jabbing into Weiss's chest. "You be nice to my little brother, you hear me?" With that, Pyrrha spun around, a saucy little bounce in her step as she sat back down next to Ruby.

Yang had been watching with a grin on her face, enjoying the sight of the pompous Weiss Schnee getting her just desserts. Now she spat out the sip of coffee she'd just taken, catching Blake full in the face.

"Little brother?" Weiss shrieked, glancing back and forth between Jaune and Pyrrha. Blake just glared at Yang and grabbed a napkin to wipe off her face, Yang trying to help in flustered embarrassment, but Blake just batted her hands away.

"By like a week!" Jaune yelped, glaring at Pyrrha.

"I thought the two of you were a couple!"

"No, they're half-siblings, like me and Yang. Same father, different mothers," Ruby said, shaking her head at Pyrrha with a grin.

"And the reason I was spending so much time with Jaune because I was helping him get through the Academy," Pyrrha said with a laugh. "So I guess everyone thought I was his overly clingy girlfriend and unintentionally I kept either one of us from having much of a social life. I'm sorry, Jaune," she finished, punching her half-brother in the shoulder.

"I think the sun is about to come over the horizon," Ren said, looking out the window at the growing dawn.

They all sat there in the wardroom, enraptured by the glorious interplay of yellow and orange, basking in the light of a new day. Ruby turned to say something to Pyrrha, only to see Nora leaned against Ren next to the hatch, their fingers intertwined. With a small smile, Ruby turned back to watching the sunrise, not wanting to spoil the moment. Nora's crush on Ren had been obvious to everyone but Ren since Ruby had met the pair, and she was glad to see them happy.

Eventually, Blake glanced over at Yang, and, finding the blonde still staring dreamily out the window, jabbed her girlfriend in the ribs. Yang yelped and started to say something to Blake, only to have the black-haired girl clear her throat and tilt her head at Ruby. Yang cleared her throat before saying, "Hey, Ruby, me and Blake have something we want to ask you."

"Go for it," Ruby asked, still staring out the window at the, oh what was that word, _beach_ , that was it, that the sunrise had revealed.

"We, Blake and I that is, we'd like you to, um, wewantyoutomarryus."

Everyone's eyes turned toward Yang and Blake. "What?" Ruby asked, not willing to believe what her sister had just said.

Blake rolled her eyes. "Yang asked me to marry her last night, and I said yes. We'd like you to perform the ceremony. That way, if we never get off this planet, at least, you know, we'll be married."

Ruby chewed her lip in thought. "Well, I'm not sure if I technically have the authority. I mean, I'm only a provisional lieutenant, and this is kind of a dinky ship." Weiss started to say something, only to stop when Ruby raised a finger at her sister. "But I'm willing to do it on on one condition. That you keep it professional on duty. No more kissy-face on watch, that goes for everyone." _Me and Pyrrha included, have to set the example,_ Ruby added to herself. "Besides, if command does decide I don't have the authority, the worst that can happen is you two go do it again in front of a proper magistrate. Anyone else have anything else they want to get off their chest?"

"Can we do it on the beach? Because I see a beach out there, and I think having their wedding be the first beach wedding in I don't know how long would be awesome," Nora said, the hand not holding Ren's pointing out the window.

"Absolutely not!" Weiss's tone was adamant. "This planet hasn't been surveyed! There's maidens know what lurking out there in that horrid green hell. I've studied historical records of forests and things, you know."

"We all have, Weiss. But, in the interest of making my sister's wedding 'awesome,' as Nora puts it, I don't see any harm in looking into the possibility. First priority is still getting us all home, of course, but... Blake, see if we have any drones built for atmospheric survey work. If we do, get them looking around, if not, see how much trouble it would be to fab them. Weiss, take Jaune and inventory the planetary survey gear. Ren, like I said last night, use whatever and whoever you need to get us off this damn rock. I'd like my sister and Blake to live a long and happy married life Not Here. Seems selfish of me, I know, but that's the way I am.

* * *

It wasn't even 'noon' as the moon's day went before they were all clustered around the wardroom table, staring down at the scorched and blackened cube Ren had just pronounced their doom. "This is the jump drive's rectifier unit. This fused, and in doing so, stranded us here. There are other damaged components, but this is the most critical one. Replacements for the others I can easily fabricate, this I cannot."

Jaune stood up from peering at the wrecked rectifier. "So what does it do, and why can't we make another one?"

"It's a very specialized computer processor whose whole purpose is to run the jump drive. And it's an almost solid piece of molecular circuitry. To give you an idea of the computing power we're talking about here, the processor to run the rest of this ship would fit in your thumb."

Jaune nodded. The cube sitting on the table was roughly twenty-five centimeters on a side. "And I'll bet the engineering fabber we have doesn't do molly-circ very well. It takes a specialized type of fabber, that I know." He looked around at everyone. "Don't look so shocked, I did manage to make it through the academy, you know."

"It's just," Weiss said, only to stop and begin again. "You usually come off as a more of a big dumb blonde goof. I kinda like this more... competent side of you."

Pyrrha laughed. "I told you, stop doubting yourself, Jaune. Yes, I helped you study, but the brain that passed those tests is yours. Weiss, you have my permission to keep kicking him in the ass as needed. I'm going to have something else on my mind for a while."

"Jaune is correct. Making molecular circuitry with a fabber of the type onboard is both a lengthy and chancy proposition. I do not think I can duplicate this, but I can try to produce an equivalent item that will still get us home, just slower. And the failure rate on the fabrication is high; it is very like my first or second attempt will fail, and I will have to recycle it and start over."

"Lay it out for me, Ren. Time to fab this per attempt and odds of success. We all deserve to know," Ruby said, standing up and working out the kink in her back.

"Up to thirty-six hours in the fabber, plus four hours of quality checks to ensure we've succeeded. This is a high-difficulty critical item and I would prefer to be extra certain. From what I read, our odds of success are roughly forty percent. But that's not the worst of it."

"There's more?" Yang yelped.

"Indeed. This should not have failed, or at least not this quickly, or in this fashion. The average lifespan of a rectifier unit is measured in decades. Often they outlast the ships they're built for. And there should have been a degradation in performance to show us this was about to fail before it failed this spectacularly. I cannot prove it at this time, but I suspect that it was bad from day one, perhaps to a degree that should not have passed quality control when manufactured."

Ruby couldn't suppress a shiver. What Ren had just said gave her the heebie-jeebies. "Ren you've been documenting this as you go, right? Okay, keep documenting the hell out of this. If this shouldn't have left the factory, I want somebody's ass, preferably literally. We can mount it on our wardroom wall."

* * *

It turned out to be relatively easy to modify the probes they had for planetary survey work. (There was even a kit already available from the fabber.) After being pestered by everyone all day, Ruby decided that it'd be best to avoid mutiny and declared that they'd handle the conversions before Ren started the tedious process of fabricating the replacement rectifier. If nothing else, playing with the probes would give everyone something to do between shifts helping Ren tear down and rebuild the jump drive.

Jaune was wedged underneath the drive assembly, replacing field generator nodes, when someone kicked his foot. "Ow," he said, trying not to drop the node he'd been about to slide in place.

"You've been avoiding me, Jaune."

He sighed. No getting out of it this time. He was well and duly trapped and out of excuses not to talk to Weiss Schnee. "Yeah, I have. Do we have to do this now? I've got four of these nodes to install, and you just almost made me drop one. Dropping them is bad, by the way. Means we have to fab another one."

"Obviously. And yes, we do need to talk now, before you find some excuse to be anywhere else. Why didn't you tell everyone Pyrrha was your sister?"

"One, just like Pyrrha, I didn't realize everyone thought we were dating instead of siblings, and two, it's not exactly something that comes up in normal conversation, now is it? 'Hey, everyone, Pyrrha's not my girlfriend, she's my sister' would sound pretty weird coming out of the blue, wouldn't it?"

Weiss nodded, forgetting that Jaune couldn't see her. "Both valid points, but how did nobody realize that you two weren't dating? I mean, your roommates should have figured it out, at least."

"Pyrrha pulled strings, or at least her mom did," Jaune said grunting as he adjusted the position of the node. Ren had emphasized that installing the nodes needed to be as precise as they could manage to make calibrating the drive as easy as possible once he got the rectifier made. "Pyrrha was my roommate. In hindsight, that probably wasn't the best idea for either one of us."

"Which reinforced the idea that you were a couple. I feel I owe you an apology, Jaune. When you kept asking me out, I was rather harsh and unfair in my rejections, in part because I was very focused on own studies, and also I was trying to avoid… complications. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. I was really scared of flunking out, and, well, there's my parents."

"What about them?"

"They're really die-hard colonists. The family business is even breeding and raising animals for livestock purposes. So when I decided I wanted to join the fleet, my whole family pretty much shut down on me. I had to fit my studying and exams in on top of my normal workload helping them. Which magically got three times as big, oddly enough."

"I doubt that's a coincidence."

"No, really? Finding out my dad wasn't my biological father made things worse, and then when Pyrrha showed up on our doorstep, that was pretty much it with my family. They threw me out. Pyrrha was the only real backup I had at that point. I took a part-time job to help out, but she really was paying most of my bills at that point." Jaune's voice faltered. "While we were at the academy, my family started answering my calls or responding to my my messages less and less. When I sent them the announcements for graduation, I found that everyone but one of my sisters had blocked my address."

Weiss blinked. "Sisters, plural? How many sisters do you have?"

"Seven. Colonists, remember? They tend to have big families. Three older than me, including Pyrrha, the rest younger. Only Violet responded, and that was only to give me an alternate address to reach her that our parents don't know about. 'Call if you need my help and I'll do what I can,'" she said.

"That's at least...something," Weiss said as she sat cross-legged on the deck. The jump drive compartment was very cramped, and there wasn't anywhere to sit.

"Yeah. So if it wasn't for Pyrrha, I wouldn't have gotten into the academy, or graduated, or be here, really."

"I'm not so certain about that." Weiss leaned back, resting her head against the bulkhead. "Since I'm the acting XO, Ruby gave me access to everyone's files. I've tried to respect your privacy, naturally, but I will admit to succumbing to temptation and looking over your academy records. Do you know you didn't just pass the exams, you aced them? Top ten percent. You also placed fourth overall in piloting and navigation. I have no doubt that Pyrrha's tutoring helped, but given your scores, I doubt they were the only reason."

"I guess..." Jaune sounded dubious.

"Now, I have something to tell you. Since Blake and Yang have decided to finally move in together full-time, Ruby has decided to convert the spare cabin into something suitable for a private dinner for two. I agreed, on one condition, that it be open for anyone to reserve, not just Yang and Blake."

"Got it. And I take it that's being added to the grunt-work rotation?"

"Volunteer basis, comes out of our free time, though I imagine everyone will want to pitch in." There had been a few… odd glances between Pyrrha and Ruby. "In any case, once it's finished, would you, would you possibly want to have dinner with me?"

Jaune wriggled out from under the jump drive, sitting up to give Weiss a confused look. "Are you, are you asking me out to dinner?"

"As 'out to dinner' as possible given the circumstances, yes."

"Very well, I accept. And I'll be sure to wear my finest uniform."

Weiss smiled. "I think that civilian dress will be more appropriate. And in my case, dress is exactly the word I want."


End file.
